Discount hotels specialist LateRooms.com is in the process of creating a Facebook application that socialises its hotel booking process.

The application will tie into LateRooms.com’s new above the line campaign and will allow users to create a ‘Book It’ list of destinations and activities they would like to experience. The app, which will be available at facebook.com/laterooms, will facilitate the sharing of trip ideas amongst friends, who in turn can build their own travel plans using the app.

LateRooms.com mentioned that the app will serve as a way to inspire users to generate destination ideas, and encourage interaction between fellow users and the brand on Facebook.

“Linking the app to our website and appropriate hotel offers will increase conversations amongst Facebook users and drive traffic to the LateRooms.com booking engine,” said Rich Kemp, social media manager at LateRooms.com.

The site has chosen full service marketing and technology company, Amaze, to create this app.

Travel suppliers and intermediaries continue to create new Facebook apps. They acknowledge that by making the travel planning and buying process social, it becomes more fun and inspiring. Last month online travel agency Expedia.co.uk upgraded its Expedia Trip Companion app. The company says the updated Facebook app lets travellers explore their holiday destination like a local and discover places to go and things to see and do “that go beyond the guidebook”.

Earlier this month Citi announced the first Facebook application from a loyalty programme that is both a rewarding and social experience. The new Facebook app, the Citi ThankYou Point Sharing App, makes it easy for ThankYou Rewards members who are Facebook friends to pool their points together, and use their points’ collective value towards a shared goal or reward.

The travel industry believes that the widespread of open social networks has reached a tipping point that makes possible for first time the emergence of social commerce on the web. Social commerce will grow as more and more users mature in their use of Facebook. The start-ups in this industry believe that as the social graph matures and becomes as robust as it has, everyone’s becoming very interested in getting more utility and value out of it. With travel being so inherently social, it’s an attractive space to create useful applications that combine the social graph and people’s natural desire for travel to be social.